PILGRIMAGE TO SOURP MAGARAVANK

Gibrahayer

Sunday 9 May 2010 – The Office of the Representative of the Armenian
Community, Mr Vartkes Mahdessian, in co-operation with the Armenian
Prelature of Cyprus, organised last Sunday 9 May 2010 the third
visit-pilgrimage to the Sourp Magar Monastery (Magaravank). The first
time was on 6 May 2007, when Armenian Cypriots visited the occupied
Armenian Monastery as a community after 33 years. According to the
Representative’s Office, around 200 Armenian Cypriots visited the
monastery on Sunday, some of whom came especially from abroad.

The monastery was founded by Copts around the year 1000 AD and in 1425
it was inherited by the Armenians. It is dedicated to Saint Makarios
the Hermit of Alexandria and it is located in the eastern part of the
Turkish-occupied Pendadhaktylos at an altitude of 550 metres and a
small distance from Halevga, within the Plataniotissa forest. The vast
land of the monastery, which is over 8.000 donums, includes 30.000
olive and carob trees, extends up to the sea and is known to be
picturesque and idyllic. From the monastery one can see the Taurus
mountain range in Cilicia, which is right opposite.

The Armenian Monastery had been for centuries a popular pilgrimage for
Armenians and non-Armenians and a place of recuperation for Catholicoi
(Patriarchs) and other clerics from Cilicia, Jerusalem and Armenia, as
well as a popular centre for local and foreign travellers and for
pilgrims en route to the Holy Land. Furthermore, the monastery was
used as a summer resort, where Armenian scouts and students would
camp, including students of the Melkonian Educational Institute, many
of whom were orphans of the Armenian Genocide. A large number of
exquisite and priceless manuscripts, dating back to 1202, as well as
other valuable ecclesiastical relics were housed there. Fortunately,
in 1947 some of them were saved when they were transferred to the
`Cilicia’ museum of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

The Magaravank is the only Armenian monastery in Cyprus and together
with the church of the Virgin Mary in occupied Nicosia, it is the most
important Armenian church monument on the island. It was occupied in
1974 during the Turkish invasion and ever since it remains at the
mercy of nature, silent, ruined, desecrated and deserted, awaiting for
its rightful owners to return.
Vartkes Mahdessian

– Prayers in Saint Magar Monastery here

– RIK 1 report here –